Chicago – The owners of the MLS will continue to discuss changes in the calendar and potential change in the competition, including the regular season and the playoffs, but will not institute these changes before the 2027 season at the earliest.
The league commissioner, Don Garber, described the changes that are on the table “one of the biggest decisions that the league will have taken in its history”. The owners discussed changes at a meeting Thursday, each of the 30 teams having the opportunity to express their position.
Although there has been speculations that there could be a decision to get out of this meeting, no vote took place.
“We clearly have work to do to determine whether or not we can go to the international calendar, and we are not yet there,” said Garber a few minutes after the meeting. “No decision has been made, and frankly, seated here today, I do not know if we have or not all the support we need to achieve it. Although there is a momentum to try to do it, there are a lot to look for our players to understand what we have a vision. Capable of capitalizing on the momentum of the World Cup, and I am not concerned at a distance on this subject. »»
Garber said that the League has evolved and will continue to “make decisions which, in our view, will bring value to our fans and for the market overall”.
In addition to a change in the international calendar, the League still weighs “different competition formats”, which includes the change “the way we play our regular season, then evolves this in the playoffs”, said Garber.
The owner of Lafc, Larry Berg, co -president of the sports and competition committee, said that he had left the meeting more optimistic than the League was approaching a decision on changes.
“It was an opportunity for the League to present and recommend important and daring movements, and it was an opportunity for the owners to respond on the way they take these movements and give the League a feeling if it is worth continuing to work on them,” said Berg. “Which, I think, is worth continuing to work on them. And also to highlight the challenges on which you have to work to obtain a final vote in the future.”
Berg has said that hope among some owners is to make larger changes together – including the calendar switch, a change in competition format and additional potential modifications of the rules and regulations on the list.
The league has published a statement saying that not all changes will come before the 2027 season at the earliest, which means that switching to an autumn calendar coming out of a summer break for the 2026 World Cup is out of the table.
This could be a missed opportunity for the League, because the World Cup will undoubtedly bring more eyes to sport and create a platform that MLS could have used to announce its changes – both in traditional advertising and in the media won around the tournament.
The leaders, however, pointed out that the World Cup was never a hard time for changes.
“There is a feeling of urgency to advance the League, and I think that the World Cup is the last catalyst that makes us try to move faster,” said Berg. “And insofar as the spectrum of the World Cup to come makes people dig more quickly, it’s positive.”
The league will now return to business partners, MLS Players Association and other voters to discuss potential changes, while exploring some of the financial implications for the change of calendar.
The Council of Governors of MLS will then meet in person in the MLS star match this summer in Austin, Texas, on July 23.
(Top Photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
